1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to safety equipment used by fire fighters and other emergency response workers.
2. Background of the Invention
The need to track the location and monitor the well-being of firefighters and emergency response workers inside structures is well understood. Several automated accountability, tracking, and communications systems have been described.
The door chock is a standard piece of gear that is carried by virtually every fire fighter within the United States. This simple wedge-like device is typically cut from wood and carried by fire fighters either on their helmet or within their personal protective equipment. The standard door-chock can be used in any manner imaginable, but is typically used during search and rescue or force entry operations where fire fighters want to ensure that access and egress points (i.e. door) remain open. This allows fire fighters the ability to quickly enter and exit an area should the location of a victim occur or conditions worsen. The only benefit of the standard door chock is that, in most instances, it keeps the doors from closing-in on fire fighters.
Fire fighters also make use of an audible alarm to indicate a man down. These devices known as PASS (Personal Alert Safety Systems) alarms are either integrated into fire fighters' self contained breathing apparatus or are stand alone devices attached to the fire fighters gear or equipment. The device activates an audible alarm when a fire fighter has not moved for a period of time.
There also exist several systems that use radio repeaters that can be placed throughout a building to maintain communications with and track fire fighters. These systems are designed to help locate a fire fighter inside a building or other structure. Due to the absorption and reflection of radio waves these systems often need to have repeaters placed throughout the building. This places an additional workload on the fire fighter and requires them to carry an additional piece of equipment.
U.S. Published Application 2006/208920 discloses a door stop beacon comprises a door stop for preventing a door from moving and a lamp connected to the door stop for indicating the door. Preferably, the door stop is a wedge-shaped door chock with a slope upper surface. A switch is placed underneath the slope upper surface so that it can be automatically activated by a pressure applied to the upper surface when the door chock is inserted underneath the door. Alternatively, the switch can be manually activated by a button. Preferably, the lamp is accommodated in a housing having multiple transparent surfaces through which the light of the lamp can pass, so that the light can be visible from various directions. Preferably the lamp is capable of strobing or flashing.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,245,216 discloses a First Responder Communications System (FRCS), also referred to as an Automated Incident Control System, is provided that supports inter-agency and intra-agency communications among first responders including fire, police, border patrol, emergency medical service, safety, and/or other agencies. The FRCS also increases situational awareness of personnel by automatically providing position information as well as other sensor information. The FRCS also provides position and time information via Global Positioning System (GPS) and/or other positioning systems, and data from deployed and/or personal sensors to provide enhanced communications, command and control capabilities to the first responders and incident command.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,091,852 discloses an emergency response personnel automated accountability system, also referred to as a Firefighter Automated Accountability System (FAAS), is provided that supports automatic tracking of and limited communications among first responders including fire, police, emergency medical service, and safety personnel. The FAAS increases situational awareness and safety of first responder personnel by automatically providing position information as well as other sensor information. Components of the FAAS integrate wireless mesh networks with positioning and communication systems to support real-time tracking of and communications with emergency response personnel. The FAAS incident awareness system provides position and time information via Global Positioning System (GPS) and/or other positioning systems, and processed data from sensors to provide enhanced communications, command and control capabilities to the first responders and incident command at the incident scene.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,091,851 discloses a communication accessory device is provided for use with a portable communication device like a radio. The accessory device, which couples to the standard communication device, includes a network system that automatically assembles a wireless network among other similarly equipped portable communication devices and control devices in an incident area and automatically assigns a unique identification to each portable communication device. The accessory device also includes a communication system that receives and transmits voice and data communications over the wireless network using at least one of High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF), Super High Frequency (SHF), Ultra High Frequency (UHF)/microwave, public safety band, cellular, satellite, and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) communications.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,653,937 discloses a method of electronically tracking and locating a very large number of objects such as, but not limited to, personal case files in health care, law, or human services systems is described. Each object to be tracked has an attached miniature radio transmitter called a tag which sends a coded signal to a network of receiver base stations with limited but overlapping reception ranges. Each receiver base station places in its own memory the time at which a record enters its range, remains in range, and the time at which it leaves. The various receiver base stations are interconnected to a host computer. By polling the memories of each receiver base station, the computer is able to determine the current location of any record.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,794 discloses a radio transmitter in a miniaturized transceiver concealed on a person to be located, such as a lost child, is activated and transmits a coded UHF radio homing signal upon receipt of an initiating signal containing the child's address code. The initiating signal is automatically transmitted by a repeater station in response to an audible “panic signal” containing the address code and contains the identical address code. The panic signal is a pulse tone produced by a hand held tone generator activated by the child's parent and is transmitted to the repeater station by telephone. Tracking vehicles are provided with automatic UHF radio direction finding and distance measuring equipment for locating the source of the homing signal. Stored information concerning the child can be transmitted to the tracking vehicles.